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The growth of the older workforce
By Richard Fry & Dana Braga
The share of older adults holding a job today is much greater than in the mid-1980s. Some 19% of adults ages 65 and older are employed today. In 1987, only 11% of older adults were working. Today’s share is similar to that of the early 1960s, when 18% of older Americans worked.
As the employment rate among older adults has gradually risen since the 1990s, employment among younger workers has followed a different pattern. Jobholding among 25- to 64-year-olds peaked at 77% in 2000, fell during the Great Recession and has rebounded somewhat since then.
Source Pew Research Center
